Page 177 of Overcast

She’ll be fine, it’s like a human compass, she has a sense of direction.

I think.

Flaring my nostrils, I tell Bishop’s dog to stay, and I move, stalking after her to make sure she makes it to the backdoor of my cabin. For the most part, she does fine until she strays to the left, and I scare the shit out of her to keep moving forward.

When we make it past the bunker and through the backyard, I do what I said I was going to and drop her ass by the backdoor. I then notice that Bishop’s truck is gone when Mills busts outside like a concerned mother after her child has been brought home.

“Get the fuck back in the house,” I bark out. “You dumb ass.”

Mills scans Stormi’s body, hopefully looking for marks, but my possessive ass slaps him in the back of the head to follow my order.

“I said five minutes,” Mills scolds her, disregarding me altogether.

“I heard a dog,” she replies back. “And I was—”

He crosses his arms along his chest. “You were what? You about gave me and Em a fucking heart attack, Cin. Geezus Christ, dude, I’m too young for this shit.”

Stormi’s hand finds his forearm, and she steps closer to him, chin raised to meet his face.

I don’t get their connection, but it’s fucking there–right in front of my face, and I hate it. I loathe how she’s always felt so comfortable with him and that he let her. That he didn’t follow my lead, but maybe it’s because he was the lesser of the two idiots between us. I truly believe he thought her innocent the whole time while I was too blind to see anything but what I wanted.

“I’m so sorry,” she vouches softly. “I didn’t mean to scare you, honestly.” Mills blows out a harsh tsk from his lips, and I allow them thirty more seconds before he gets another blow to the head.

“Alright,” I digress, yanking Mills back by his bicep. “Last warning, dipshit. How the hell you’re part of B723 is beyond my ass if you can’t watch a woman for Christ sakes.”

Mills peers over at me. “You turn her down when she looks at you like she does.” He turns on his heels. “You dick.”

Wow, shots fired.

On his own, he goes back inside, followed by hollers to Em about how I found her and shit.

“You done causing trouble for one night?” I prod, gaining the biggest pain in my ass’s attention. She hits me with an exasperated look, clearly unaffected at how everyone but Bishop gave a shit.

Apparently, she’s not only my issue but has become everyone else’s. She gained everyone’s heart or headspace, making us all a bundle of nerves when we think something happened to her.

She’d be a first.

“Again,” she replies. “I heard a dog.”

“So animal noises are how to prod you out to a possibly dangerous situation?” I look heavenward at the glimmering sky of stars. “If I would’ve known that I wouldn’t have busted into your house the way I did.”

“Why not?” she presses. “You like making a scene.”

I blow out a harsh exhale. “No, I don’t.”

“Really, because you’ve gone at it with Mills twice, Bishop once, I’m still waiting on you and Emmy to argue about me and—”

“Point made, sweetheart.”

“Marty.”

“Mhm?”

Out of my peripheral, I see her step closer to me. “Do you have to go back?”

“Yes.” I don’t bother moving my staring at the stars. If I do, I’ll lose out to what I’m supposed to be doing tonight.

“Okay,” she deadpans. That has me glancing back down at her.

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